MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES
COKE ZERO SUGAR 400
DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
TEAM CHEVY DRIVER PRESS CONF. TRANSCRIPT
JULY 5, 2018
CAMARO ZL1 CAPTURES SECOND CONSECUTIVE DAYTONA POLE
Chevrolet Earns Fourth Pole of Season, 698th All-Time
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (July 6, 2018) – Chase Elliott scored his fourth career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) pole putting the No. 9 Hooters Camaro ZL1 in the top spot at Daytona International Speedway with a lap of 46.381 seconds and an average speed of 194.045 mph. The run marks Elliott’s third pole in six races at the ‘World Center of Racing’ and his first pole win of the 2018 MENCS season.
“Our Hooters Chevy has been nice all weekend,” Elliott said after capturing the pole. “We made a couple of changes actually at the end of that last practice before the rain and made it go a little faster. I hope that translates to a good driving car tomorrow night. Obviously, a lot of speed in our Chevrolet’s. I’ve said this before, but we have put a lot of effort into our speedway program at Hendrick Motorsports. The engine shop, chassis shop, body shop, we take a lot of pride in coming to these races. They pay the same amount of points as the rest of them, so it matters and our team treats it that way and their hard work pays off.”
The Coke Zero Sugar 400 pole is the fourth of the season for Chevrolet and 698th all-time in MENCS competition.
Elliott’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman posted the second fastest time in his No. 88 Axalta Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, making it the fourth straight all-Hendrick front row in a MENCS race at Daytona.
Seven-time MENCS champion and Hendrick Motorsports driver, Jimmie Johnson recorded the fourth fastest time in qualifying in his No. 48 Lowe’s for Pros Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
A total of five Chevrolet’s qualified in the top 10 for Saturday night’s 400-mile event including Richard Childress Racing teammates Ryan Newman and Austin Dillon. Newman was seventh in the No. 31 Bass Pro Shops/Cabela’s Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, while 2018 Daytona 500 champion Dillon was 10th in his No. 3 American Ethanol E15 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.
Brad Keselowski (Ford) was third and Kevin Harvick (Ford) was fifth to round out the top five qualifiers.
The Coke Zero Sugar 400 takes the checkered flag on Saturday, July 7th at 7:00 pm ET.
POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
CHASE ELLIOTT, NO. 9 HOOTERS CAMARO ZL1 – Pole Winner
WHEN YOU SPRAIN YOUR ANKLE HORSING AROUND AT THE POOL, DOES THAT MEAN THAT YOU HAVE TO WIN THE POLE? CAN YOU JUST GIVE US AN UPDATE ON HOW YOU DID IT AND HOW YOU’RE DOING?
“Yeah, I’m good. It’s just a sore ankle. But all good. Nothing more than that. It’s good to be here and have a fast car, obviously. So, I hope that translates to a good race tomorrow night. Unfortunately, my past pole positions here have not ended well. So hopefully this time it does and we can just execute a good race tomorrow night and get some points and try to grab a win.”
GIVEN HOW HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS QUALIFIED TONIGHT AND HOW HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS HAS COMPETED IN PLATE RACES RECENTLY, AND THE WAY THAT HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS HAS RUN AT OTHER TRACKS THIS SEASON, IS HENDRICK MOTORSPORTS LOOKING AS TOMORROW NIGHT AS THE BEST OPPORTUNITY FOR GETTING A WIN AND GETTING INTO THE PLAYOFFS AT THE END OF THE SEASON?
“I think everybody has the opportunity to win each week. I mean no, I don’t think we’ve put all our eggs in the Daytona basket by any means. We’ve always put a lot of emphasis on plate racing. We always have, at Hendrick Motorsports, and we always will; simply because these races happen four times a year, and the points that they pay out at these events count the same as the rest of them. So, because of that, we have always put emphasis on them and regardless of how your performance is elsewhere, these races need to matter in everyone’s eyes at the shop, and they do. And their hard work paid off today.”
IS THIS A BETTER OPPORTUNITY THOUGH THAN MAYBE NEXT WEEK?
“No, I don’t think so, no.”
WHAT KIND OF ADVANTAGE IS THERE WINNING THE POLE HERE AT DAYTONA VERSUS OTHER TRACKS?
“I think the biggest thing is your pit selection and having that first pit box is certainly nice. Aside from that, you’re probably not going to lead the whole race. It would be nice if you can. But at some point throughout the night you’re going to be shuffled out of line and things are going to happen and there’s nothing you can really do about that. That being said, you just kind of have to roll with it and pick and choose when you want to push and when you don’t and hopefully we’ll be able to keep our car rolling throughout the whole night; and on the ground at all times and off the wall. And hopefully we’ll have a shot.”
WHICH ANKLE WAS IT AND COULD YOU BE MORE SPECIFIC ON HOW YOU DID IT?
“It was my right ankle. And, I was horsing around at the pool.”
ALEX BOWMAN, NO. 88 AXALTA CAMARO ZL1 – Qualified 2nd
WILL THIS TRANSLATE TO TEAMWORK TOMORROW AND CAN YOU GUYS PUT IT ALL TOGETHER FOR A WIN?
“I sure hope so. I feel like we have kind of gotten our butts kicked by some other guys working together a little better than we have the last two races. Obviously, we have talked about that and we are just going to try to learn and address the race as it comes. It’s really hard to predict how a superspeedway race is going to go and plan exactly how it is going to go. Obviously, we’ve got really fast race cars. I feel like mine is driving awesome. I didn’t expect to qualify nearly as good as we did. Very pleased with our car. I think Greg (Ives, crew chief) and all the guys back at the shop have worked really hard at this package and obviously, it has shown to pay off.”
IS THIS A REAL OPPORTUNITY TOMORROW NIGHT FOR YOU GUYS TO GET THE WIN AND MAKE THE PLAYOFF’S?
“Yeah, I don’t really think so. I think it’s probably harder to pull off an entirely clean race and get a win at a speedway race. It’s kind of more of a wild card and anybody can win type of situation, but we go to the race track every week planning to contend for wins and obviously we haven’t shown the speed we need to this year and we have struggled this year, but it’s every bit as hard to stay out of somebody else’s mess and stay out of trouble for 400-miles tomorrow night. Hopefully, we can pull off a win, that would be great, but kind of like Chase (Elliott) said we haven’t put all of our eggs in one basket and I think the biggest thing is just to get out of here with a good solid points day. Obviously, we are the cutoff line right now for the Playoff’s, so just can’t afford to have a bad one.”
SINCE YOU ARE ON THE BUBBLE OF MAKING THE PLAYOFF’S ARE YOU INCREDIBLY NERVOUS? WHEN YOU GET OUT OF THE CAR ARE YOU LOOKING AT POINT STANDINGS TO SEE WHERE YOU ARE AT?
“Obviously, you look at them because that is a big goal of ours to make the Playoff’s but I wouldn’t say I’m nervous. It’s a different situation for me. It’s something that I’ve never even been close to being in a situation to contend to get into the Playoffs. So, I would like to get in by winning or to be more solidly in than we are, but I feel like we are making steps in the right direction to be able to do that. As long as we can keep going forward, not have any bad days and just keep running better and better. I want to get into the Playoffs and advance and make it as far as we can and hopefully go to Homestead and contend for a championship. I don’t want to just make the Playoffs and get eliminated in the first round by any means.”
SOME OF THE DRIVER’S ARE SAYING THE CARS ARE RUNNING MUCH TIGHTER IN THE PACK HAVE YOU FELT THE SAME? HOW MUCH OF A CONCERN IS THAT FOR TOMORROW?
“Yeah, I didn’t really think we had… at least I wasn’t apart of any pack that I felt was big enough to really get a good idea of how the cars were going to draft. I thought my car drove fine and I spent most of my time I guess at the front of the packs that I was in. Obviously, a different viewpoint, but I think it will be interesting to see tomorrow night. It is typically a little bit wilder of a race and we will just have to wait and see what plays out.”
SINCE YOU DIDN’T GET AS MUCH PRACTICE TIME YESTERDAY WHAT WILL YOU DO THE FIRST PART OF THE RACE OR ARE THERE THINGS YOU STILL NEED TO FIGURE OUT DURING THE FIRST PART OF THE RACE?
“I was really happy with my car, so I’m not too worried about it. Obviously, starting up front with two of my teammates close by I think if we can work together and keep the Hendrick Motorsports cars up front that is the best way or the best outlook. Obviously, it’s a superspeedway race, anything can happen, there is really no way to control or really say what is going to happen or plan it. So, just have to address the race as it comes and like I said, hopefully, we will keep all three of them up front and get William (Byron) up there too, but we will just have to wait and see.”
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